It was one thing when the boss asked you to start a Facebook account a few years ago, but social media management today is an animal all its own.

Keeping your social media activities straight, efficient, and effective takes much more than time browsing through feeds. It requires tremendous organizational skills, and you need great social media management tools to get there.

What if everyone in your team was heavily dependent on your support? Where would you start? How will you keep tabs on all the activities going on?

These are the questions I face each day working with Lightspan, where much of my work is in collecting and organizing  data in a way we can put it to work quickly.

I like to say that proficiency is the daughter of consistency. (Yep, this quote is exclusively Lightspanish so don’t bother searching for it.)

To be consistent, you must be organized. Be diligent about keeping records on everything you do. It seems tedious (and it can be) but yes, recording even the tiniest of steps and records – not just usernames and passwords –  will save you time in the long run and give you information to reference when you need it.

There are a lot of free social media management tools to help you get organized and stay on top of your game. While there are some phenomenal new social media programs out there, you’ll find that some of the old standbys are tremendously helpful in executing your activities.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Social Media Management Tools to Keep You Sane

 

1. Google Docs

Yup, this is one of the most important. Google docs is best used in Chrome but it can also be accessed in other browsers but with some limitations. Docs are easily shared to everyone in your group, making for great collaborative work. You can make your content public or private and decide whether anyone can edit or just get a view.

Two features I love:

• Unlike in Excel, highlighted rows or columns in Google spreadsheets are easily dragged wherever you want.
• The app ‘Tab-Snap’ (formerly ‘Grab Ya’ll URLs’) allows you to collect multiple pages with links in one swipe.

You also don’t have to trade versions through email, eliminating inbox clutter and wasted time spent updating the wrong version of a file.

Mana Ionescu  introduced us to two magical tricks to find blogs with high page and domain authority using Google docs: Scraper and Moz (formerly SEOMoz). With just a few clicks, you are able to collect hundreds of blogs relevant to the keywords you used.

2. Excel

Even though a lot of people switched to Google spreadsheets, Excel still has more useful features.

Here are 4 reasons I still love using Excel:

• No data loss during disruption of internet service.
• An excel spreadsheet is reliable to use when scheduling posts to Hootsuite in bulk.
• Sorting from A to Z and looking for duplicate values are easy when you have to deal with large data on Excel spreadsheets.
• Bulk deletion. Press CTRL button while your mouse selects the cells you want removed. Release CTRL button before you right-click and choose DELETE in the menu. This is extra useful when collecting quotes page by page.

3. Mouse

It’s not a web app and it has been around a long time, but sometimes we overlook the added efficiency of using a mouse instead of a trackpad or touchscreen. Have you tried working on Google docs on your tablet? How about working in spreadsheets for massive data organization? It’s frustrating!

Even when you’re working from the coffee shop or the kitchen table, try bringing the mouse with you. You’ll find you relieve your wrist and work more efficiently.

4. Notepad

Notepad works as scratch paper on screen. Why not just use Word? Three words: notepad is neutral.

When you want to remove all traces of formatting or hyperlink to what you copied from anywhere, paste it on Notepad first; then, select all and copy once again.

Plus, Word is a hog. It’s prone to crashing and slows down your computer. If it’s all you’ve ever used, you won’t know any better. But try using a simpler program for web editing once – TextEdit, Google Docs or Notepad – and you’ll find you’ll only go back to Word when you have to.

See? Working behind the scenes of social media can be easier! Before you schedule multiple posts in Hootsuite, Sendible, or even Facebook – you need to collect and select first. And these 4 social media management tools are your best friends in keeping your sanity.

Let’s do a poll! Who loves Excel? Who loves Google docs? Please place your vote in the comment box.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.